Sam Lister, the newly appointed Director General of No 10 North, is commuting from London to Manchester rather than relocating to the northern outpost. The 52-year-old civil servant has no current plans to move his family from their £2.2million townhouse in Islington to Manchester, 200 miles away.
Lister was appointed to deliver Prime Minister Andy Burnham's pledge to end centuries of London-centric government by running the new headquarters. However, he started his working week last Monday from Whitehall as usual before taking an early train north on Tuesday morning.
Each week, Lister works Mondays from the Cabinet Office before catching the 6.29am Avanti train from London Euston to Manchester Piccadilly. He travels in standard class on a return ticket costing more than £220, before returning home to London on Friday evening.
Including meals, his weekly travel and accommodation expenses total an estimated £800 in taxpayer funding. Annually, that amount is enough to pay the wages of a new junior doctor.
Weekly commute and luxury hotel stay
While working in Manchester, Lister divides his time between the temporary headquarters of No 10 North and the Manchester Deansgate Hotel. The 24-storey hotel features an indoor pool, spa, sauna, and Cloud 23, a 23rd floor bar offering panoramic city views.
On his Tuesday morning journey north, Lister was joined in standard class by Will Davis, Director of Devolution and Local Growth at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. The pair sat together, chatting and working on laptops throughout the train trip.
Harriet Gordon, a 34-year-old Cambridge-educated deputy director at the Treasury, was also traveling on the same train. Davis stayed at the same Manchester hotel as Lister during the week.
The temporary headquarters for No 10 North is located at Heron House, a 15-minute walk from Manchester Piccadilly station. Formerly known as a northern hub for GCHQ, the building also houses a Slug & Lettuce pub, the Manchester Register Office, and Wing's, a Chinese restaurant favoured by Wayne Rooney.
Lister left Heron House at 5pm sharp on Friday dressed in a pale blue shirt and maroon trousers. He took a tram to Piccadilly station to catch the 5.34pm train to Euston, seating himself in Standard Premium after paying for the upgrade out of his own pocket.
Most other officials who traveled north earlier in the week departed on Thursday evening. Shortly after 6pm that day, more than a dozen civil servants were seen dragging suitcases toward Piccadilly station to catch the 7.14pm train back to Euston.
Political backlash over costs
Downing Street sources insisted that Lister is keen on his new role but has not yet decided on permanent living arrangements for his family. A source said: "Sam has only been in the job for three weeks, so there are wider things to think about, which takes time."
Lister previously worked as a journalist before holding civil service positions across the Department of Health, Department for Business, and Department for Culture. He is expected to make the same weekly round trip again this week.
Prime Minister Andy Burnham announced No 10 North as his flagship policy within days of taking office, promising it would shift government power away from Westminster. Downing Street stated it is currently advertising for permanent roles at the outpost, which could eventually employ up to 300 staff.
However, political opponents have strongly criticized the initiative as a costly gimmick and an excuse for staff to work from home on Fridays. Former Conservative leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith said: "The worst bit about it is the cost and the complete pointlessness of it."
Conservative MP Greg Stafford also criticized the arrangements for civil servants traveling to Manchester. Stafford said: "If anything shows what a farce the idea of No 10 North is it's this: the taxpayer having to fork out for loads of civil servants going up and down on the train just to feed Andy Burnham's vanity. It's ridiculous."
